There are now standards of psychosocial care in pediatric cancer! | Patient Centered Care and Trauma Informed Care for Pediatric Patients

Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress

Despite years of research on psychosocial factors associated with pediatric cancers and their treatment, there have not been published, evidence-based standards of care until now!

Guest blog post brought to you by Anne Kazak, PhD, ABPP

Co-Director of the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress

Despite years of research on psychosocial factors associated with pediatric cancers and their treatment, there have not been published, evidence-based standards of care until now! Please read this new important special issue of Pediatric Blood and Cancer. There are fifteen standards of care, each supported by a systematic literature review. The introductory paper provides an overview and a table with a summary of the standards. These standards offer healthcare teams and their institutions evidence for providing comprehensive psychosocial care to children and families. They offer families important information about the types of care that can be provided and that they can ask about. Publishing these standards is just the first step in a processing of improving care. There are many important next steps in order to implement the standards and develop ways of providing care consistent with the standards.

Staff from the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress were actively involved in the development of these standards of care. Peter and Vicki Brown, the founders of the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation (the funder of this work) are members of the CPTS family advisory board. Providing trauma-informed care throughout the course of treatment is essential in preventing traumatic stress responses in the short and long-term for children with cancer and their family members. The resources of CPTS, available at www.healthcaretoolbox.org, can help by assuring that trauma-informed pediatric care becomes an expected experience for children and families.

We welcome your involvement and ideas about this process. Join in the discussion on our Facebook page today!

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